I was provided with an e-ARC copy of “Island of Exiles” by Entangled Teen in exchange for a free and honest review. The book seemed like a perfect read for me as it was advertised as a YA Fantasy novel with LGBTQ+ characters.

Since I will be discussing world building and some of the relationships in the book, please, be aware that there might be minor spoilers ahead.

This book got on my radar thanks to Indigo. Some time ago, they had Royal Bastards listed under Diverse Reads category – the section that I tend to scout religiously for new releases. This book is no longer listed there, and who knows, perhaps, I imagined it, but I was looking forward to reading a new YA fantasy anyway.

In a new series Publishers Weekly has listed as “one of the most anticipated YA’s of 2018”, we’re excited to share the cover for Bring Me Their Hearts! NYT bestselling author Sara Wolf delivers a fast-paced, gritty fantasy sure to thrill fans of Holly Black, Sabaa Tahir, and Sarah J. Maas.

ARE YOU READY??

I watched “The Last Jedi” a couple of days after its release and was smitten. After the epicness of everything that happened in it, I needed more of that universe. I was not ready to let go.

In my thirst for more of Star Wars, I went online and was randomly browsing Wikipedia, when it occurred to me that I could read more Star Wars books! I did read “Rogue One: Catalyst” (and reviewed it) which I think really enhanced the movie for me, so I began my search for suitable adult novels. I didn’t want to read just about Luke Skywalker’s adventures or anything labels Young Adult. I came across the trilogy “Aftermath” by Chuck Wendig and immediately went to my library overdrive and requested the first book in audio.

When I started thinking of writing this post, I didn’t even suspect that there might be different ways of reading Sherlock Holmes stories. Naturally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was rather prolific, in spite of his developed frustration with the character that brought him fame, but it never occured to me that somebody could read the stores not in the publicated order – because it was the way I read them as a child.

Petra by Marianna Coppo

December came and went in such a quick flash that it took me by surprise. I, unsurprisingly, failed at Blogmas. But now I am ready to revive my blog once again. And what can be better but reading & blogging goals?

In 2017, my reading/theatre goals were simple:

read 100 books (GoodReads challenge) – which I did

watch 10 theatre plays – I watched 24 and will talk about them later

listen to 20 audiobooks – I came close but didn’t hit 20

I also wanted to read one book in French and one book in German, and I didn’t even come close to doing that. So, I am going to try again in 2018.

While thinking about what topics to do for Blogmas, I realized that there are several YA books that I really love, but which seem to be either unpopular among bloggers/booktubers or simply have lower than I would have expected ratings on GoodReads. So, I decided to make a list of those!